BOB ABERNETHY, host: Welcome. I’m Bob Abernethy and this is our annual look back at the top religion and ethics news of the year. Religion & Ethics managing editor Kim Lawton is here, and so are Kevin Eckstrom, editor-in-chief of Religion News Service, and E.J. Dionne, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, professor at Georgetown University, and columnist for The Washington Post. Welcome to you all. Kim has put together a short video reminder of what happened in 2012.

KIM LAWTON: A wave of mass shootings renewed age-old theological discussions about evil, suffering and tragedy. Especially after the massacre at the Connecticut elementary school, many religious leaders repeated calls for stricter gun control measures. Some called it a pro-life issue. One of the mass shootings took place in a house of worship. In August, six people were killed when a gunman opened fire at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

Once again, religion played an important role in the presidential election. For the first time ever, there were no white Protestants on either ticket. Although there wasn’t a lot of God-talk from President Obama or Mitt Romney, grassroots religious groups were active on both sides. Evangelical voters were divided during the primary season, but in the end they rallied around Romney, despite some concerns about voting for a Mormon candidate. Still, their support didn’t put him over the top. Obama narrowly won the Catholic vote, thanks to a strong showing among Latino Catholics.

The US Catholic bishops waged an active campaign against the Obama administration’s decision to require employers, including many faith-based employers, to provide free coverage of contraceptive services. The bishops said that would be a violation of religious freedom. The administration tried to offer a compromise, but the bishops—joined by many evangelical groups—said the compromise didn’t go far enough. Several religious institutions filed legal challenges to the policy. This summer, the bishops organized what they called a “Fortnight for Freedom” to highlight their concerns.

Faith-based groups continued to be divided over economic issues. Conservative activists supported massive cuts to the federal budget, arguing that it’s immoral to leave debt to future generations. But a broad-based interfaith coalition argued that it was immoral to make cuts that would hurt the poor. To underscore that point, a group of Catholic sisters organized a project called Nuns on the Bus, where they crisscrossed the country speaking out against the federal budget proposed by Congressman, and vice-presidential candidate, Paul Ryan.

Catholic sisters generated headlines on another front as well. The Vatican issued a harsh rebuke of the umbrella group that represents the majority of American nuns. It accused the Leadership Conference of Women Religious of what it called “serious doctrinal problems,” a charge the nuns denied. They began a time of dialogue with bishops appointed by the Vatican to oversee them. Meanwhile, lay Catholics held a series of rallies in support of the sisters.

Yet another kind of nones also made news—the “n-o-n-e-s.” According to the Pew Research Center, a record high number of Americans—one in five—now describe themselves as having no religious affiliation. Many of these so-called nones held a rally in Washington to show their clout. But the nones are not completely secular. A new survey by Pew and this program found that two-thirds of the unaffiliated say they do believe in God or a universal spirit. More than half describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious.”

Advocates of gay marriage saw new momentum. In the November elections, three more states legalized same-sex marriage—the first time it had been approved in ballot initiatives. And voters in Minnesota rejected a proposed ban on gay marriage. Both sides of the debate were galvanized by the Supreme Court’s announcement that it will be taking up two cases with national implications in the spring.

Ten years after the Catholic Church’s clergy sex abuse crisis exploded, a high-ranking priest in Philadelphia became the first church official to be convicted for failing to report abuse. Monsignor William Lynn was found guilty of child endangerment and sentenced to up to six years in prison. And in Kansas City, Bishop Robert Finn was convicted of a misdemeanor for not reporting the discovery of child pornography on a priest’s computer. Finn’s sentence of two-year’s probation was suspended. He was the first bishop to be criminally sanctioned.

There were leadership transitions for several major religious groups. New Orleans pastor Fred Luter became the first African-American president of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination which was founded in support of slavery. In England, Justin Welby, a former oil executive who had been a bishop for just one year, was selected to be the next Archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual head of the worldwide Anglican Communion. And in Egypt, Bishop Tawadros was selected as the new Coptic pope, succeeding Pope Shenouda the Third, who died in March. By tradition, he was selected by a blindfolded boy who picked his name out of a crystal bowl.

ABERNETHY: Kim, thank you for that survey.

LAWTON: Thank you.

ABERNETHY: We’re all mourning, as everyone else is, the slaughter in Connecticut. What do you hear from religious leaders? What are they saying about what happened and how to respond to it?

LAWTON: Well, it’s interesting how situations like this always seem to bring a lot of people back to the spiritual, and you hear people looking to scriptures for consolation, even the president doing that; a lot of theological talk about if there is a God why would God let this happen? And is this evil or was it mental illness, and sin or sickness—lots of those kinds of interesting questions. What’s going on in our society that things like this happen? And then, of course, you got to the political and you heard the calls for gun control, more gun control, and a lot of that was coming from the religious community and a lot of religious activists really wanting to engage on that issue.

KEVIN ECKSTROM: What I’ve noticed, it’s different this time, it seems to be, is that for a long time your religious supporters of gun control, it was sort of, “Well, it would be really nice if we could do this, that, or the other thing.” Now there’s a real sense of defiance. You know, the dean of the National Cathedral here in D.C. said that the gun lobby is going to be no match for the cross lobby and that there’s a real sense that they’re tired of this, they’re not going to take this sitting down, and they’re really going to fight for some kind of change.

ABERNETHY: E.J., in many of your writings and in your new book, Our Divided Political Heart, you have referred to the great split in this country between those who put primary importance on individual things and those who put primarily importance on the community. Do you see any of that in the reaction to what happened in Connecticut?

E.J. DIONNE: Well, to some degree I do, and, you know, the argument in my book is that if you look at most of us Americans throughout our history we have never been all one thing or all the other. Of course, we all believe in individual liberty and, you know, we are individualists in a particular way, but the America way of individualism is not a radical individualism. It is tempered by our other commitment, which is a commitment to community. The very first word of the Constitution of the United States is the word “we,” and I don’t think we focus on that enough. The preamble to the Constitution describes common goals, and so I think in the wake of this awful event in Connecticut there really was a discussion where even Americans who believe passionately in the Second Amendment, who believe in an individual right to bear arms nonetheless said this right comes with obligations to the community, and the community has a right to impose rules in order to protect little children and other innocent people in the country, and I think Kevin’s right. I think at the end of this there did seem to be a very different quality to the discussion. We have been so passive as a nation in the face of one catastrophe after another like this, and I think the fact that it was 20 beautiful, innocent children who were killed here that I think it took a lot of people back and said maybe we should forget about the old politics of gun control and try to do something this time.

ABERNETHY: And would you care to venture any guess as to whether something meaningful can come from this?

DIONNE: I have some hope, and I think the religious community will play a central role in this, and I think you are going to hear their voices on an issue where, you know, in some ways surprisingly I don’t think their voice has been as strong as it might be now. I think a lot will depend on whether people who have in the past opposed gun regulation, like banning the big magazines and assault weapons and requiring universal background checks, when they say, “Wait a minute. That was then. That position doesn’t hold anymore.” And so a lot will not depend on traditional supporters of gun control except to the extent that they’re going to have to mobilize. A lot will depend on the consciences of people who have traditionally opposed these laws and have a change of heart.

ABERNETHY: And Kevin, six weeks ago, approximately, we had an election.

LAWTON: It feels like a lot longer than that.

ABERNETHY: What did you see? What patterns did you see? What lessons can you take from what the voting was?

ECKSTROM: Well, I think there are several things. One is that there was a big cautionary tale, I think, in this election for Republicans and for conservative religious groups who want to put an emphasis on kind of the hot-button social issues–gay marriage, abortion and this year rape, surprisingly. That’s not going to be enough to win anymore, and they can’t just rely on the traditional white evangelical base to win anymore, and they need to broaden the tent, and if they push too hard on some of these conservative, really conservative social issues it’s going to end up alienating, and I think we saw that in a lot of the Senate races. So I think the key take-away from this year’s election is that it’s going to be broader and what that means for religious people is that it’s going to need to be a broader set of issues that they get involved in.

LAWTON: One of my favorite quotes from after the election was Ralph Reed, who is one of the true champions of the religious right, and he said, “We have to do a better job of not looking like your dad’s religious right,” and he admitted that it was a wakeup call for them, not so much in changing their positions. They’re not going to be, you know, changing their positions on some of these hot-button issues, but I think he was recognizing how they come across and the people that they appeal to hasn’t been as successful as it was in the past because of the changes in our country.

DIONNE: Given the way some of these candidates talk, particularly about rape, I don’t even think that’s fair to your daddy to put him that way. I mean, there really was some extreme rhetoric that I think very much hurt this movement, but I also think there was a kind of sea-change here. My friends of the Public Religion Research Institute that has studied noting that only 35 percent of Barack Obama’s vote came from white Christians of various kinds he put together. Now that’s important. He still needed that 35 percent to win the election. His share of the Catholic vote in places like Ohio was very important to carrying states like Ohio. On the other hand, this was the first campaign, presidential campaign, where you really saw a candidate aggressively using a pro-choice position to win votes. Usually Democrats have been careful and a bit defensive about that. It’s the first campaign in which support for gay marriage clearly did not hurt a candidate, may have even helped Obama in some states. So I think we really did see a sea-change on cultural questions.

ABERNETHY: And there was a time when all of us were saying, “Wow, what are the evangelicals and others going to do with a Mormon candidate?” And it wasn’t an issue.

DIONNE: I think that’s actually heartening for us as a country.

ABERNETHY: What?

DIONNE: I think it’s heartening for us as a country. No matter where you stood on the election between Romney and Obama, there really wasn’t a lot of expression of anti-Mormon feeling on any side, and I don’t even think there were, as far as I could tell, not even covert campaigns on this, and, you know, as we said before, white evangelicals—it was said they wouldn’t vote for a Mormon. Well, guess what? They did vote for a Mormon. So I think it’s good news for the country that we did not have, you know, real displays of bigotry that we often do have when you have a breakthrough candidate representing a new religious minority.

LAWTON: Of course, in some of that…

ABERNETHY: Is that tolerance or indifference?

LAWTON: Well, you know, I also think there was some anti-Obama stuff in there.

ECKSTROM: Oh, there’s no question about that.

LAWTON: And so when you start weighing it, well, yeah, I’m kind of uncomfortable theologically. I mean, I’m saying evangelicals were saying, “I’m uncomfortable theologically with a Mormon, but very politically uncomfortable with Barack Obama.” And when they did the calculus in the end, so in a sense that sort of made the Mormon issue a non-issue.

ECKSTROM: No, I agree with that entirely, but I do think that the fact that we didn’t see, say, the kind of bigotry that you saw visibly when John F. Kennedy ran…

ABERNETHY: The Supreme Court is going to hear these two cases involving gay marriage, and gay marriage was a big issue in several states. What do you see going on there?

ECKSTROM: It seems to me that there’s a broad-based cultural shift underway. Now, I’m not at all saying that people are suddenly all in support gay marriage or that the issue is going to go away, but you saw this year, for example, a Gallup poll that said a majority of Americans saw homosexual relations as morally acceptable. First time ever. You saw a president, a sitting president for the first time come out and endorse same-sex marriage. You saw voters in three states not only allow same-sex marriage, but in a fourth state reject an attempt to ban it, which is equally as important, I think. So this issue is not done. It’s got a long ways to go, and in my experience covering this, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. There’s often a backlash if people think it’s going too fast. So the Supreme Court may well put the brakes on all of this, but I think this year showed, in very stark relief, that this issue is moving much faster and much clearer, in a much clearer direction than I think it has in previous years.

LAWTON: Is this really…

ABERNETHY: Kim…

LAWTON: Excuse me, I was just going to say it’s a really tough issue for the religious community in particular, because you have very different opinions within the religious community. I mean, some of the strongest opposition to this is coming from evangelicals, Roman Catholics, although, you know, obviously at the grassroots people are divided. Younger evangelicals tend to be more tolerant of it, but you still have strong opposition from people who see this as an issue of faith, a moral issue, biblical, biblically mandated, and so that makes it tough. There are religious groups who call it an equality issue and support gay marriage as a matter of justice and equality, but a lot of arguments happening within congregations as well.

DIONNE: I think the most important political event on the gay rights issue seem to have nothing to do with politics. It was a decision 30 or 40 years ago for gays and lesbians to just come out and declare themselves. That changed the country’s attitudes over time, because no one, even someone with quite traditional views, no one who has a dear friend, a dear relative who is homosexual can feel the same way about it again, and I think that’s what you’re seeing on gay marriage, and there is no issue that is more closely linked to age than gay marriage. Attitudes towards gay marriage, younger people are overwhelmingly for gay marriage, and even younger socially conservative people are much less hostile to gay marriage than older Americans who are more uncomfortable with it, and so what it feels like is an issue that really is a matter of time, that in just, you know, eight years, from 2004 to 2012, the change is breathtaking in attitudes towards this.

ABERNETHY: I was impressed this past year with our own survey and other data about the people, the growing number of people, almost 20 percent now, who say they have no religious affiliation whatsoever. We call them “the nones.” Is that something that the churches and religious people in general ought to be pretty worried about? That’s going up fast.

LAWTON: Well, there’s been a lot of discussion about it within the religious community and, you know, scholars are sort of debating, is this really an actual change or are people just more willing to describe what has always been their position? But nonetheless it is, it’s growing at, you know, an incredibly fast rate, much more so than many other groups, and yes, I’ve heard a lot of discussion within religious communities. After the survey came out there were all sorts of churches that were preaching, doing sermons about it, and doing studies, but, you know, the interesting thing, our survey found that the majority of people, not the atheists and the agnostics who are part of the unaffiliated group, but the people who say, “I’m just nothing in particular,” 80 percent, more than 80 percent of those people say, ”I’m not looking either. I’m not looking for a religion that’s right for me.” So I think the challenge for some of these religious communities is how do you interact with, reach out to, whatever your language is, with people who really don’t want to be reached out to, or, you know, are happy with where they are?

DIONNE: And I think this should alarm the traditional religious communities because the number of nones, the n-o-n-e-s, is especially high among Americans under 30.

LAWTON: Yeah.

DIONNE: And it’s not just, we always say, well, young people are less religious than older people, which is often the case, but this generation is less religiously affiliated than earlier generations of young people. This is a real, a real change, and I think that many of these young people say they are spiritual, but they are not necessarily looking for churches or synagogues or mosques, and I think it is a real challenge that requires a response by all of the religious traditions, and whether, for example, and Bob Putnam’s work suggests this, a certain sort of right-wing tone to some of the religious congregations turns off younger people who are not as conservative politically as the older generations, and I think there’s going to be a lot of discussion of that.

ABERNETHY: Kevin, you and many others have noted what’s going on, what has been going on in Europe for a long time, dwindling religious interest. Is that finally coming to the United States after 50 years of prediction?

ECKSTROM: Well, I think what’s so interesting to me this year is how much more visible, kind of, secularism is, or non-religion or unbelief, and it’s not, you know—traditionally when we think of religion we think of churches and synagogues and mosques, and we never quite think of this group of people who, you know, as Kim said, really have no interest in it, and that always seemed as least mentally that it was a fairly small group, you know, kind of on the edges. There’s a study that came out this week that said unbelievers and the religiously unaffiliated are the third largest group in the world. There’s as many unaffiliated people in this world as there are Catholics. And I think what it does, it’s a giant mental shift to realize that the religious landscape that we had sort of thought we knew is actually much different, I think.

DIONNE: And I think your point, Bob, is really interesting, because we Americans have resisted those trends that we saw in Europe over several generations and, you know, I don’t think we have a clear answer yet. Are Americans becoming more European, secular in their approach to religion? But it’s a first time you’re seeing data that suggests that’s even possible. And I think that is something we’re going to be grappling with for another couple of decades.

ABERNETHY: We are close to running out of time here. But before…

LAWTON: And so much more to talk about.

ABERNETHY: Before we do, let me ask you as you look back now, from this vantage point, whether you see something that happened in this past year that did not get the attention you think it deserved. Who wants to go?

DIONNE: I just wanted to mention the civic vitality of the African-American churches. You know, when we’re talking about the decline of religion, a lot of emphasis on the campaign in terms of the voter turnout among minorities is on the Obama political operation, and believe me, everybody on both sides says it was an amazing operation, but I think the response of the African-American church to some of these voter suppression laws as they saw them was really impressive, and I think we need to revisit the role of the black churches, a vital civic institution in our country.

ABERNETHY: Yeah?

ECKSTROM: In all of the back and forth over the attacks on the U.S. embassy in Libya, you know, it was all blamed on this movie that came out, and then afterwards President Obama came out and gave a very profound speech about religion and religion’s role in the world and how religions in the East and the West have to learn to get along together better. I thought it was probably the most profound religion speech that President Obama’s ever given, and I think a lot of it got lost amid all the talk about why this attack happened.

ABERNETHY: Kim?

LAWTON: And maybe broadening out E.J.’s point a little bit, you know, I always get frustrated in a political year because we spend so much time talking about politics and issues and as religion reporters we cover how are the faith-based groups doing and how are they interacting? And we ignore the just real religious life that goes on inside congregations and houses of worship, individuals and how they relate to God directly, or you know, whatever their spiritual practice, but also how they relate in their families and in their communities, and I think that’s an issue that we get so caught up in the politics and the issues that we forget covering religion is sometimes about bigger things than just politics.

ABERNETHY: And an individual’s relationship with God, not just with the politics.

LAWTON: Exactly, exactly, and there’s a lot going on there. I mean, we touched on it a little bit with this survey with the rising numbers of people who aren’t affiliated with a particular religion, but in fact 80 percent of Americans still are affiliated, and while rising numbers aren’t, 87 are, and they are very involved.

ECKSTROM: There’s more to life than politics is a good way to end an election year. That’s a good thought.

LAWTON: Hard to believe, but yes.

ABERNETHY: Imagine you saying that. I’m sorry to say our time is up now. Thank you for a great conversation. To E.J. Dionne of the Brookings Institution, Kevin Eckstrom of Religion News Service, and Kim Lawton of this program. Next week, our look ahead to the most important religion news we expect to be covering in 2013.

Watch a panel of reporters discuss the most significant religion and ethics news of 2012, including the recent tragedy in Newtown, the presidential election, the rising number of people with no religious affiliation, and ongoing turmoil in the Middle East. /wnet/religionandethics/files/2012/12/thumb02-lookback-2012.jpg

BOB ABERNETHY, host: Like many others in the nation, faith groups are assessing the impact of this week’s election. According to exit polls, President Obama won a slight majority of Catholic voters overall, thanks largely to strong support from Latino Catholics. Mitt Romney won the white Catholic vote by an almost 20-point margin. Almost 80 percent of evangelicals who voted voted for Romney. Black Protestants went overwhelmingly for Obama, as did the vast majority of Jews. But the biggest share of Obama’s faith coalition was voters who say they aren’t affiliated with any religion.

Steve Schneck was co-chair of Catholics for Obama. He says while issues like abortion, religious liberty, and gay marriage were important, in the end it was the economy that tipped the scale for the president.

STEVE SCHNECK: All of these religious issues, while they are important to religious voters, I think, even among religious voters they ranked these issues a little further down on the spectrum.

ABERNETHY: Ralph Reed of the Faith and Freedom Coalition admitted that a massive mobilization among religious conservatives wasn’t enough to offset the number of women, young people, and minorities who voted Democratic.

RALPH REED: I think we need to do a better job of not looking like, you know, your daddy’s religious right. You know, we have to be as a movement younger. We have to be more diverse ethnically.

ABERNETHY: Voters also decided several key ballot initiatives. For the first time ever, measures to approve same-sex marriage passed by referendum in Maine, Maryland, and Washington State. And voters in Minnesota rejected a proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage. In Massachusetts, a measure to legalize physician-assisted suicide was narrowly defeated. In California, voters decided not to abolish the death penalty.

With all the acrimony around the election, many religious leaders called for a new spirit of civility. More than 700 churches held special Election Day Communion services. Organizers said they wanted to refocus allegiance to God and work for justice beyond the ballot box.

Now, more on this week’s presidential election: I’m joined by Kim Lawton, managing editor of this program; Kevin Eckstrom, editor of Religion News Service; and Rachel Zoll, national religion writer for the Associated Press, who’s with us from New York. Kim, underneath all the data do you see a message?

KIM LAWTON: Well, there’s definitely a message for, I think, the Republican Party and the religious right—that those old faith-based coalitions that won elections aren’t winning those elections any more. I mean, you had—evangelicals did an unprecedented mobilization. They came out to the polls, and they voted more for Republicans than they have in previous elections even. You had, when you break out by race, almost 60 percent of white Catholics going for Romney and still those two together weren’t enough to tip the election, and that’s different than previous elections, and believe me that’s making many of the people inside the religious right, but also inside the Republican Party, taking notice.

ABERNETHY: Rachel in New York: did you see any pattern or message in all that data?

RACHEL ZOLL: I think one of the messages is a growing acceptance for Mormons by the Christian conservatives. The—we saw at the beginning of this election, people thought that Mitt Romney’s faith, his Mormonism, was going to keep evangelicals from the polls. Now we don’t have final numbers on the size of the electorate, but it’s clear that he won— Governor Romney won the overwhelming percentage of white evangelical votes. They did vote for him despite theological differences.

ABERNETHY: And how do you interpret that?

ZOLL: That Mormons have, in a growing way—are gaining acceptance in the United States.

ABERNETHY: Kevin, what did you see?

KEVIN ECKSTROM: I think one of the big take-aways, not just on religion, but just generally is the growth of the Hispanics. I think what, 71 percent of Hispanics voted for President Obama, and that’s not just a message for the Republicans or the Democrats, but I think also for evangelicals that the coalition that they’ve always relied on, primarily white, primarily older, primarily male, isn’t going to cut it anymore. And so I think you’re going to see, perhaps, a bit more evangelical activism on immigration, which they’ve already been doing, but I think this election will really kind of ramp that up.

LAWTON: And it’s an interesting question.

ABERNETHY: And they’re talking about that coming up soon.

LAWTON: Exactly, exactly but that’s the question. Religious right leaders are saying, okay, we recognize we need to open up a little bit. The Republican Party recognizes they need to reach out. But how do you do that? Do you need to change the message? And I think that’s one question that people are taking away different answers on. Is the answer to be less extreme, or less dogmatic on issues like abortion and gay marriage? Will that appeal to more people? Now, Latinos tend to be more conservative on social issues, but they don’t tend to vote, by and large, on the social issues, so how exactly do you broaden that tent?

ABERNETHY: Rachel, you’ve had things to say about the difference between changing the language of something that you want to talk about and changing the position. Fill us in on that.

ZOLL: Well, that’s one of the fears I think among a lot of Christian conservatives, religious conservatives in the Republican Party—that the lesson that the party will take away from this is that they should not be speaking about social issues and that this emphasis on social issues is actually something that’s going to hurt them. Now the counter-argument that a lot of the different groups are making, including the anti-abortion groups, is that we had—they had a moderate nominee, Mitt Romney, for the job who did not talk enough about social issues, and that is one of the arguments I’m hearing.

ECKSTROM: But if you look, though, at social issues, if you rope in homosexuality with that, along with abortion that Rachel mentioned, I mean, we had a clear win for gay rights across the board almost in this election. So I think, yeah, you can talk more about abortion or homosexuality, but I think the numbers and the trends, at least on the gay question, maybe abortion’s a little different, but on the gay question I think what we saw this time is that it doesn’t have the same salience and the same power or even the same level of acceptance that many religious conservatives might think.

ABERNETHY: What does that say to you—that the country is becoming much more tolerant?

ECKSTROM: Yes, I think so. And I think, you know, we used to talk about the Will-and-Grace Effect back in the ‘90s, you know, where people learned about, you know, gay people, but now you have shows where you have two gay dads, and you’ve got a transgender character on “Glee.” The society is moving much faster than politics or even the religious institutions on this question.

ABERNETHY: Rachel, I wanted to ask you where do the election returns leave the relationship between the Catholic bishops and the president of the United States?

ZOLL: That’s the question. Things got very bitter this year between the bishops and President Obama when he enacted the birth control mandate that was part of the health care—his health care reform. He and Cardinal Dolan, who is the president of the U.S. bishops conference, once actually had a very friendly relationship. Instead, they now—you hear bishops very vehemently condemning President Obama throughout the election for his policies, saying he’s dangerous for the country and dangerous for religious freedom itself. It’s not at all clear how they’re going to work together going forward. One of the other problems that the bishops have is that when they went to Republicans who appeared to be more sympathetic and open to their situation, or their argument on the religious liberty question, ultimately did not do anything for them and dropped the issue.

LAWTON: And there’s some interesting, also, I think—tensions within the laity, the Catholic community, that we saw come out in this election. I mean, we saw outside Catholic players on both sides. The bishops were very active especially highlighting issues of religious freedom, abortion, marriage, traditional marriage. You also saw the “Nuns on the Bus” and people from the more progressive end in the Catholic Church raising issues about economic justice and budget concerns, and there were a lot of divisions, and frankly I saw a lot of vitriol in the Catholic laity, on the blogs and everything, between those two wings which—those differences have always been there, differences of emphasis maybe within the Church, but some of that vitriol really seemed to bubble up in this election.

ABERNETHY: So, the Joe Biden wing and the—

LAWTON: The Joe Biden Catholics and Paul Ryan Catholics, and they didn’t agree on a whole lot this time around.

ECKSTROM: But I think at the end of the day, Cardinal Dolan who heads the bishops conference is, in a lot, a lot of ways, in the same position as Speaker Boehner in the House, and they’re going to have to work with this president whether they like it or not. They tried maybe to defeat him. It didn’t work. But I think Cardinal Dolan at his heart is a pragmatist and wants to get something done, and the question is how they’re going to work together. I think they’ll be forced to work together.

ABERNETHY: Everyone talks about the message being, okay, you guys, go back to Washington, make some compromises, get something done. It’s not clear exactly what’s to be done although everyone agrees immigration is one of the things that’s very high. But a lot of people see this fiscal cliff coming, the need for Congress and the president to get together to prevent big, big cuts in spending and big, big increases in taxes. So how can the religious communities help in that?

LAWTON: Well, it’s interesting because religious people have been and will continue to be involved sort of in both ends of that debate, and for each side it’s a moral issue. So, you have Catholics, including the Catholic bishops, saying we need to help the poor. Budget cuts can hurt the poor and that, that’s a matter of belief, religious belief, and conscience for them. You have religious conservatives using moral language to talk about the debt, and it’s immoral to leave a debt to our children, and they’re pretty strong on that, and the press releases that I’ve been getting after the election certainly didn’t mention compromise as a religious value. They—all sides talked about staying strong on their particular positions.

ZOLL: One of the interesting things that this brings up is that this is an area where the bishops, the Catholic bishops, can work closely with the Obama administration, and I suspect that the Obama administration would very much welcome it. I don’t think anyone benefits, and they don’t feel that anyone benefits from the tensions between them, and the bishops have obviously not only a theology but an incredible track record in terms of supporting poor, the poor people in terms of charities, and they are very concerned about these social issues, and next week when they meet they will also be discussing the economy and poverty.

ABERNETHY: Our time is up, I’m sorry to say. Rachel Zoll in New York, thank you very much. Kim Lawton here, Kevin Eckstrom here in Washington, thanks to all of you.

ALL: Thank you.

/wnet/religionandethics/files/2012/11/thumb01-election-results-2012.jpgThere was more than one message on Election Day when it came to the role of evangelicals, Catholics, and Mormons in politics and the place of economic, social, and cultural issues as the fiscal cliff approaches.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2012/11/09/november-9-2012-election-2012-religion-and-the-results/13803/feed/4Abortion,Barack Obama,Campaign 2012,Catholics,Democrats,Evangelicals,faith-based groups,hispanics,Mitt Romney,Mormons,presidential election,Rachel ZollThere was more than one message on Election Day when it came to the role of evangelicals, Catholics, and Mormons in politics and the place of economic, social, and cultural issues as the fiscal cliff approaches.There was more than one message on Election Day when it came to the role of evangelicals, Catholics, and Mormons in politics and the place of economic, social, and cultural issues as the fiscal cliff approaches.Religion & Ethics NewsWeeklyno11:34Ralph Reed: “There’s More Work to Be Done”http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2012/11/08/ralph-reed-theres-more-work-to-be-done/13766/
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]]>At the National Press Club the day after the election, Ralph Reed, founder and chairman of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, criticized the Romney campaign and the Republican Party for “underperforming.” “We did our job,” said Reed. “But we can’t do the Republican Party’s job for them, and we can’t do the candidate’s job for him or her.”

/wnet/religionandethics/files/2012/11/thumb01-ralphreed.jpgAfter the election, Ralph Reed, founder and chairman of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, criticized the Romney campaign and the Republican Party for “underperforming.” “We did our job,” said Reed. “But we can’t do the Republican Party’s job for them, and we can’t do the candidate’s job for him or her.”

]]>http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2012/11/08/ralph-reed-theres-more-work-to-be-done/13766/feed/8Barack Obama,Campaign 2012,Evangelicals,Faith and Freedom Coalition,Mitt Romney,presidential election,Ralph Reed,RepublicansAfter the election, Ralph Reed, founder and chairman of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, criticized the Romney campaign and the Republican Party for “underperforming.” "We did our job," said Reed. "But we can't do the Republican Party's job for them,After the election, Ralph Reed, founder and chairman of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, criticized the Romney campaign and the Republican Party for “underperforming.” "We did our job," said Reed. "But we can't do the Republican Party's job for them, and we can't do the candidate’s job for him or her."Religion & Ethics NewsWeeklyno4:06 Religion in the 2012 Electionhttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2012/11/02/november-2-2012-religion-in-the-2012-election/13685/
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KIM LAWTON, correspondent: Both campaigns continue their active efforts to get their constituencies out to the polls next week. Professor John Green of the Bliss Institute at the University of Akron says in a tight election, the campaigns look to the coalitions they can rely upon, and that includes faith coalitions.

PROF. JOHN GREEN (University of Akron): Each side understands that every vote will count.

LAWTON: Green says while faith-based outreach hasn’t dominated this campaign season, it has continued to be a key factor.

GREEN: A lot of that effort though, is not on television. It’s going on behind the scenes, because appealing to a particular group always has the capacity of alienating another group. This is true for Democrats as well as Republicans. So they’re trying to assemble these coalitions a little bit, I wouldn’t say completely below radar, but certainly off television.

LAWTON: Prior to 2008, scholars talked about a God-gap in American politics: the more often people attended religious services, the more likely they were to vote Republican, the exception being African Americans, who are overwhelmingly Democratic. Many experts believe that trend will continue in this election cycle. Melissa Deckman is professor of political science, at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland.

PROF. MELISSA DECKMAN (Washington College): If you think about the God-gap, so-called God-gap, it’s still alive and well this year in American politics, and it’s bigger than things like the gender gap, although you often hear more in the media about women’s voting and men’s voting, so I think religion continues to play a big role in American presidential elections.

LAWTON: The Republicans are hoping for a big turnout from evangelicals, who make up about one-quarter of GOP voters. In the early days of the campaign, there were questions about whether theological differences would keep evangelicals from supporting a Mormon candidate. Governor Mitt Romney’s campaign tried to woo them on the basis of shared values.

GOV. MITT ROMNEY: (in speech) People of different faiths, like yours and mine, sometimes wonder where we can meet in common purpose, when there are so many differences in creed and theology. Surely the answer is that we can meet in service, in shared moral convictions about our nation stemming from a common worldview.

DECKMAN: It seems to me that the Mormon issue isn’t quite as big of a deal as perhaps many had speculated. Instead, we see that evangelicals have really taken to Romney, I think mainly because of their dislike of Obama, but his religious views I think have not mattered as much.

LAWTON: The question is whether enough evangelical Republican voters have been convinced that the religious differences don’t matter.

GREEN: I think that Governor Romney does face a challenge with getting high level of turnout and enthusiastic support from the white evangelical community, which has been a mainstay of Republican presidential vote for a number of years now. And that’s because there is this lingering skepticism.

LAWTON: Catholics have been another important group this election season, especially with Catholic candidates on both tickets for the first time ever. But it has been clear that Vice-President Joe Biden and Representative Paul Ryan have very different views on how to apply their faith to their politics.

VICE-PRES. JOE BIDEN: (at debate) Life begins at conception. That’s the church’s judgment. I accept it in my personal life. But I refuse to impose it on equally devout Christians and Muslims and Jews and — I just refuse to impose that on others, unlike my friend here, the congressman.

REP. PAUL RYAN (at debate): I don’t see how a person can separate their public life from their private life or from their faith. Our faith informs us in everything we do.

LAWTON: In many ways, those differences mirror differences among grassroots Catholic voters. At one end of the spectrum are strongly conservative Catholics who tend to stress issues around abortion. At the other end are more liberal Catholics who stress issues of economic justice. Then there are those in the middle.

GREEN: There are if you will, Biden Catholics and Ryan Catholics, and both campaigns are struggling very hard to get those groups mobilized but then there are a lot of Catholics who are in the middle, who might agree with the Republicans on one issue and with the Democrats on another so quite an effort to get the middle of the road Catholics to swing one way or another.

LAWTON: One unusual hallmark of this campaign was the high profile involvement of outside Catholic players. A group of nuns led by Sister Simone Campbell of the lobby group NETWORK, launched a road trip called “Nuns on the Bus” to highlight their view that the budget cuts promoted by Paul Ryan would hurt the poor and violate church teachings. Campbell was invited to share her views at the Democratic National Convention.

Meanwhile, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, offered benedictions at both the Democratic and Republican Conventions. For months, the bishops have led a vigorous campaign against the Obama Administration’s policy mandating that employers, including many religious employers, offer free coverage of contraceptive services to their employees. The bishops accuse the Obama Administration of violating religious liberty.

It’s unclear how much those efforts have changed any opinions among voters. Polls show Catholics remain deeply divided, and that could be especially important in battleground states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida. While much of the focus has been on the economy, Green says here at the end of the campaign, other social issues may play an important role.

GREEN: There’s some strong incentives for the parties to reach out for secondary issues. Issues like women’s rights, religious liberty, the environment, foreign policy. Because if voters are evenly divided on their most salient issue, the economy, they’re going to make their decision perhaps on some of these secondary issues. issues that they don’t regard as the most important, but they might not be able to choose between Governor Romney and President Obama on something like unemployment so some of these other issues may matter.

LAWTON: Both candidates have attempted to apply moral and religious language to their economic policies.

ROMNEY: (at debate) I think it’s, frankly, not moral for my generation to keep spending massively more than we take in, knowing those burdens are going to be passed on to the next generation and they’re going to be paying the interest and the principal all their lives.

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: (in speech) If I’m willing to give something up as somebody who’s been extraordinarily blessed, and give up some of the tax breaks that I enjoy, I actually think that’s going to make economic sense. But for me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus’s teaching that “for unto whom much is given, much shall be required.”

LAWTON: But much of the God-talk has been done directly to religious audiences, as opposed to in general campaign venues. Even Obama, who made frequent religious references in the last campaign and throughout his presidency, hasn’t been emphasizing it as much of late. Some experts believe that could be to avoid alienating the growing number of secular voters who are Democratic.

GREEN: There’s some real positives to these candidate’s faith but there’s also some real potential downside, and so that’s why I don’t, we don’t see the candidates themselves talking a lot about it, but their surrogates and their campaigns are reaching out to religious and non religious voters alike, trying to bring them into their camp.

LAWTON: For most of the campaign, Romney refrained from speaking directly about his Mormon faith. In the last few weeks, he’s opened up a bit more, although he still largely avoids using the word “Mormon.”

ROMNEY: (at debate) My passion probably flows from the fact that I believe in God. And I believe we’re all children of the same God. I believe we have a responsibility to care for one another. I — I served as a missionary for my church. I served as a pastor in my congregation for about 10 years.

DECKMAN: I think what has been a smart strategy for Mitt Romney is not to focus on Mormonism per se, because when you start talking about the specifics of any faith, then that becomes the issue.

LAWTON: With a Mormon, two Catholics, and only one Protestant on the ticket this time, Deckman says that represents something important about the nation.

DECKMAN: Americans, despite their religious differences, by and large are pretty tolerant. // We have our issues in American history where that’s not necessarily the case and some groups like atheists and Muslims might not feel that way, but generally speaking we have a surprising amount of tolerance here.

LAWTON: And whatever happens next week, many believe that could be one of the most important religion stories coming out of this presidential election. I’m Kim Lawton reporting

/wnet/religionandethics/files/2012/11/thumb01-religion-2012election.jpgThe God gap was alive and well this year in American politics, according to one professor of political science. White evangelicals, Catholics, Mormons, and a growing number of religiously unaffiliated voters all played a part in Election 2012.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2012/11/02/november-2-2012-religion-in-the-2012-election/13685/feed/3Abortion,Barack Obama,Campaign 2012,Catholic Vote,Evangelicals,God gap,John Green,Melissa Deckman,Mitt Romney,Politics,Separation of Church and State,Timothy DolanThe God gap was alive and well this year in American politics, according to one professor of political science. White evangelicals, Catholics, Mormons, and a growing number of religiously unaffiliated voters all played a part in Election 2012.The God gap was alive and well this year in American politics, according to one professor of political science. White evangelicals, Catholics, Mormons, and a growing number of religiously unaffiliated voters all played a part in Election 2012.Religion & Ethics NewsWeeklyno8:35 The UN and Muslim Protestshttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2012/09/28/september-28-2012-the-un-and-muslim-protests/13232/
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BOB ABERNETHY, executive editor and host: As protests against an anti-Islam video continued in many parts of the world, debates over tolerance, free speech, and religiously motivated violence were front and center at the opening session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

In a strong speech, President Obama again condemned the video as an insult to Muslims and to all Americans. But he said America rejects attempts to restrict even speech that insults religion.

President Obama at UN: “We do so because given the power of faith in our lives, and the passion that religious differences can inflame, the strongest weapon against hateful speech is not repression, it is more speech: the voices of tolerance that rally against bigotry and blasphemy, and lift up the values of understanding and mutual respect.”

ABERNETHY: The president also called on world leaders to speak out forcefully against extremism.

President Obama at UN: “That brand of politics, one that pits East again West, South against North, Muslim against Christian, Hindu and Jew, cannot deliver the promise of freedom.”

ABERNETHY: But many Arab and Muslim leaders renewed their calls for a UN resolution that would ban defamation of religion. Egypt’s new president Mohammed Morsi said his country respects freedom of expression, but, he added “not the freedom of expression that deepens ignorance and disregards others.”

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once again generated controversy in a speech that accused what he called “uncivilized Zionists” of threatening war against his country. Protesters outside the UN denounced Ahmadinejad’s continued anti-Semitic language. Many Jews were particularly upset that his speech fell on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the holiest day on their calendar.

Meanwhile, several world leaders urged the UN to do more to end the conflict in Syria. Many warned of a looming crisis facing the nearly 300,000 Syrian refugees who have fled to neighboring countries. UN humanitarian officials called for more international aid and said if the fighting doesn’t end, the number of refugees could rise to 700,000 by the end of this year.

In addition to emergency aid, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said a “top priority” for the international community should be promoting sustainable development that will provide long-term help for poor countries.

Governor Mitt Romney sounded similar themes at former President Bill Clinton’s Global Initiative, which took place at the same time as the General Assembly meetings. Romney urged a reexamination of temporary foreign aid.

Governor Mitt Romney: It can employ some people for a time, but it can’t sustain an economy, not for the long term. It can’t pull the whole cart if you will because at some point, the money runs out. But an assistance program that helps unleash free enterprise can create enduring prosperity.”

ABERNETHY: The calls at the UN for outlawing offensive speech produced strong defenses of such speech not only by President Obama but also from leaders in the American Muslim community.

I want to explore that with Kim Lawton, managing editor of this program, and Haris Tarin, director of the Washington office of the Muslim Public Affairs Council.

Haris, how are you trying to persuade, how are American Muslims trying to persuade other Muslims around the world that putting any kind of limit on free speech is dangerous?

HARIS TARIN (Muslim Public Affairs Council): Well, I think the first way we’re trying to convince fellow Muslims of this is the fact that the idea of free speech is a foundational part of the Quran itself. We don’t only believe that in terms of Americans and our belief in the Constitution , but the Quran challenges folks to engage in dialogue and in discourse, challenges people of the same faith and various different faiths, as well. So it’s foundational to the text of Islam, we believe. The Quran actually records insults to the Prophet Muhammad himself and challenges people to engage in that discourse. So I think it’s foundational not only to the Constitution but to our sacred texts, as well.

ABERNETHY: Are you getting anywhere with that argument?

TARIN: I think we are. We are. We’ve put out several videos in various languages, in Dari, in Pashto, Arabic, Somali, and they’ve gotten close to a million views by folks in the Muslim world, and we’ve gotten a very positive response, especially from young people who went out on to the streets of Cairo, of Tunis, of Libya to ask for their right for free speech, to begin with.

KIM LAWTON, managing editor: I’ve been struck also, I’ve been following this debate for a while, and it’s not just Muslim-majority countries that are pushing for these restrictions on defamation against religion, although they’ve been at the forefront of it, but it’s an idea that also has traction in some African and Latin American countries, where people have this idea that religion is somehow different and that you shouldn’t insult religion and in fact, you know, even in Western Europe, there’s some—already it’s against the law to deny the Holocaust in many European countries. So our notion of free speech, especially when it comes to religion, is not shared around the world.

ABERNETHY: But is it changing?

TARIN: I think it is changing. I think, as the world becomes smaller, we live in a globalized world, and people are realizing, as President Obama said in his UN speech, that someone with a phone camera can really cause a stir around the world, and so that we’ve got to be able to adjust, we’ve got to able to have a discourse and dialogue when it comes to difficult issues like this rather than take the streets and commit acts of violence.

LAWTON: I found it interesting American Muslims seem to be speaking to two audiences in effect, because on one hand you’re speaking to Muslims around the world, but on the other hand you’re also speaking to American societies and trying to say not all Muslims are like the people who are in the streets doing violence. I mean, has that been a challenge for you all?

TARIN: It is a difficult balancing act, but I think people realize that the majority of people who are out on the streets, they were a very small number, and amongst the small number the ones who committed acts of violence were even smaller. As we were saying earlier, in Libya people came out in the thousands in support of the ambassador, in support of our country.

ABERNETHY: But there’s also some politics in here, isn’t there? I mean, hardliners in some of these countries, are they not encouraging some of the violence in order to put pressure on these new, fragile governments?

TARIN: They are.

ABERNETHY: To become hardline themselves.

TARIN: Absolutely, absolutely. These countries are nascent democracies and hopefully democracies. There’s a vacuum of power and a vacuum of authority in many of these societies, so extremists are taking advantage of this vacuum in power and authority and, unfortunately, they don’t want to see a free, democratic Libya or Egypt or Tunisia or Pakistan. They want to see an extremist vision for their societies, so they’re trying to take advantage of this vacuum in power, and what we have to do is stand on the side of the majority to ensure that we marginalize the extremists in those societies and also the extremists who put the film together and promoted the film, as well.

LAWTON: I noticed that your organization, in a statement, really did call on the Muslim community to also examine the role of extremism within the Muslim community, and certainly that is a theme that President Obama talked about this week as well in the UN speech, where he was a little more forthright than he has been in the past in calling on nations to, and leaders of nations, to deal with extremism in their midst.

ABERNETHY: Thanks to Kim Lawton and to Haris Tarin for being with us. Thanks.

TARIN: Thank you.

/wnet/religionandethics/files/2012/09/thumb01-un-and-muslim-protests.jpg“We’re trying to convince fellow Muslims of the fact that the idea of free speech is a foundational part of the Quran itself,” says the director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council’s Washington office.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2012/09/28/september-28-2012-the-un-and-muslim-protests/13232/feed/1Barack Obama,defamation,Egypt,Freedom of Speech,globalization,Haris Tarin,Libya,Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,Middle East,Mitt Romney,Mohammed Morsi,Muslim Public Affairs Council“We’re trying to convince fellow Muslims of the fact that the idea of free speech is a foundational part of the Quran itself,” says the director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council’s Washington office.“We’re trying to convince fellow Muslims of the fact that the idea of free speech is a foundational part of the Quran itself,” says the director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council’s Washington office.Religion & Ethics NewsWeeklyno8:15 Faith-Based Votershttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2012/09/21/september-21-2012-faith-based-voters/13172/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2012/09/21/september-21-2012-faith-based-voters/13172/#commentsFri, 21 Sep 2012 20:37:30 +0000http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/?p=13172More →

BOB ABERNETHY, host: Both presidential candidates this week issued direct video appeals to faith-based voters. President Obama’s video came with the launch of a new campaign project called “People of Faith for Obama”:

OBAMA: “I’m asking for your support because we have more work to do to build an economy where families are valued and secure, and expand opportunity, extend compassion and pursue the common good.”

ABERNETHY: Meanwhile, Governor Romney’s campaign released a video that was played for religious conservatives at the Values Voter summit in Washington last weekend:

ROMNEY: “All we ask is that between now and November 6th, you join us and commit like never before. This election can come down to just one more vote. I ask you to find that one vote, ask one more person to join our campaign.”

ABERNETHY: Our managing editor Kim Lawton has been covering the campaigns. Kim, what do we know so far from the polls about how faith-based people are dividing?

KIM LAWTON (Managing Editor, Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly): Well, of course, it’s just a snapshot for right now but there were some new numbers this week that suggested that evangelicals, that all important group for Republicans, do seem to be supporting Mitt Romney at around the same levels they supported John McCain, which is very high, so that’s good news for Governor Romney. Catholics seem to be more divided as they were last time around although some new numbers this week suggest that they are leaning more towards Obama as they did in the last election. I was surprised to see this week numbers suggesting that mainline Protestants, who went principally for John McCain last time around or slightly more for John McCain, are, more of them are leaning towards Obama this time around.

ABERNETHY: Is there anything at all in the data to suggest that Romney’s religion is making any difference?

LAWTON: Well, in these snapshots that we have right now it doesn’t appear to be the case. Some people had wondered if evangelicals would not be supporting him because he’s a Mormon and some evangelicals are concerned about that, had raised concerns about voting for a Mormon candidate. Doesn’t appear to be that way, however, people have to get to the polls for it to actually matter, you know, turnout is what counts. I was surprised in the video this week that Mitt Romney released, he never once mentioned his Mormon faith and some people had suggested that he might be talking about it more. He didn’t this week.

ABERNETHY: Not talking about it perhaps because it is a matter of concern for a lot of evangelical Protestants?

LAWTON: Well, that’s what some people are wondering if he just doesn’t want to raise it, he doesn’t want to raise it.

ABERNETHY: And the issue of religious liberty, quickly, for the Catholic leadership.

LAWTON: That’s something President Obama stressed in his video this week. He said “I’m firmly committed to religious liberty and always will be.” That’s an issue that some Catholics, particularly in the hierarchy, had been challenging him on. Again, it doesn’t seem to be hitting the grassroots right now.

ABERNETHY: Kim Lawton, many thanks.

Managing editor Kim Lawton discusses what the latest polls say about which candidates religious voters are supporting in the close race between President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney./wnet/religionandethics/files/2012/09/thumb01-faith-voters.jpg

LUCKY SEVERSON, correspondent: This is the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, epicenter of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There’s been a lot of criticism about Mormonism, especially among evangelicals like Stephen Davis. He’s a religion scholar at Claremont McKenna College.

PROFESSOR STEPHEN DAVIS (Philosophy and Religious Studies, Claremont McKenna College): If the question is, is Mormonism a legitimate expression of Christianity, honestly I would have to say no. I think that legitimate expressions of Christianity can be found in Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism, virtually all the Protestant denominations, but not Mormonism, because too many of their doctrines and beliefs are non-Christian.

PROFESSOR PATRICK MASON (Chair of Mormon Studies, Claremont Graduate University): Mormons take real offense when people tell them that they’re not Christian.

MASON: If Christian defines what is your relationship to Jesus—do you believe that salvation comes through Jesus, do you worship Jesus Christ—then no doubt Mormons are Christian. I mean they’ll be the first to tell you, look at the name of the church; it’s the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

SEVERSON: Mason says antagonism toward Mormons stretches back to the beginning of the church. They’ve been called a cult, demonic, a false religion with a false prophet.

MASON: Mormons in a lot of ways are scarred from a long history of misrepresentation in what they see as false reports about the church or unfair treatment of the church, and this goes all the way back to the 1830s.

SEVERSON: That was when Joseph Smith said he had a revelation where Jesus told him that all the religions at that time were an abomination in his sight. From then on Mormons, who were seen by some as lower-class, superstitious dupes, were targets of ridicule and violence eventually leading to the assassination of Joseph Smith. In the 1860s, the government sent the army to Utah to keep an eye on the Mormons. The army established this fort overlooking Salt Lake City. The cannons that were here were aimed at the Mormons.

But the most vocal critics of Mormons have long been evangelicals. Richard Mouw, president and professor of Christian philosophy at the Fuller School of Theology, says one reason is because Mormons have been such good proselytizers.

PROFESSOR RICHARD MOUW (Fuller Theological Seminary): Mormonism began as this evangelistic program of going out and getting converts, and very often converts from the traditional denominations, and so evangelicals and Mormons have had an unusually hostile relationship over the years because they have been sort of competing proselytizing programs, but also they traded the rhetoric in very hostile terms.

MASON: There’s a sense of them-against-us that in some ways gets inflated among the grassroots membership of the church. But there is no doubt that for many people they see evangelicals as the enemy, and they need to be converted.

SEVERSON: Among scholars, the important distinction between Mormonism and most mainstream Christian churches centers on theology.

MASON: The Mormon view of the Godhead is that God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are three separate beings, so Mormons reject a Trinitarian notion that they’re three in one. Mormons see them as three distinct and separate beings.

DAVIS: Evangelical Christians, like all mainstream Christians, want to say that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one in some really strong, ontological sense.

MASON: And Mormons also have an idea that they’re not—that God is not ontologically different than humans in the sense so God and humans are essentially the same species, that humans can progress to eventually become like God. God is not radically “other,” but in a sense approachable and understandable and knowable.

DAVIS: The idea that God, the God whom we worship, was once a human being and then grew to be God, grew to Godhood, will strike most evangelical Christians as being blasphemous.

SEVERSON: Another fundamental difference is that Mormons rely on more than just the Bible for the word of God.

MASON: Certainly Mormons don’t believe in the Bible as the only word of God. They believe in an open canon, that God continues to speak to prophets today.

DAVIS: They believe in continuing revelation. They have three other books, the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price and a book called Doctrines and Covenants, and evangelical Christians would never accept that those books are inspired or the word of God or are prophetic.

MOUW: So I often say that the bad news about Mormonism is they believe in continuing revelation. The good news about Mormonism is that they believe in continuing revelation, and they might actually, in continuing revelation, begin to modify and alter some of the things that they see themselves as having received in earlier revelation.

SEVERSON: Mormon theology has changed over the years after church prophets have received new revelations. It wasn’t until the 1970s that the church allowed blacks to hold the priesthood. And the church’s policy allowing plural marriage was abandoned in the 1890s after a prophetic revelation.

DAVIS: A lot of Americans are suspicious of Mormons over the issue of polygamy, which should have gone away a long time ago. But the problem is that there are these Mormon fundamentalist sects, especially in southern Utah and northern Arizona, that still practice polygamy, and I think that gets a lot of the American people confused about what the Mormon Church’s position really is.

SEVERSON: As for lingering animosity today, Professor Mouw says some of it is because the Mormon Church has grown so big and prosperous.

MOUW: And I think it has something to do with the growth of Mormonism. While on the one hand they’re entering into the mainstream in a lot of ways, they’re also a very powerful presence globally—14 million Mormons around the world. They’re identified with some of the major businesses. There’s a sense that it’s a kind of juggernaut, that it has tremendous clout.

SEVERSON: As for the claims that Mormonism is a cult, Professor Mouw takes exception.

MOUW: I mean one reason why I don’t think it’s very helpful to call Mormonism a cult is that they have a world-class university. They have scholars who consider all kinds of complex topics. You know, Scientology doesn’t have a world-class university. Hari Krishna doesn’t, Jehovah Witnesses don’t. But Mormonism has pretty much entered into the mainstream of intellectual life.

SEVERSON: Mouw goes even further, accusing some some of Mormonism’s accusers of “shading the truth.”

MOUW: I want to say I think the motives of people who often attack, for example, attack Mormons as evangelical leaders or other kinds of Christian leaders is that they do want to protect their people against falsehood, against being led astray. But when it comes in terms of standing up for the truth, if you tell falsehoods about another religion that’s bearing false witness against our neighbors.

SEVERSON: Mouw expressed those sentiments to a packed house at the Mormon Tabernacle. His words did not sit well with many evangelicals.

MOUW: The press the next morning the big story was “Fuller Seminary president says we’ve sinned against Mormons,” and boy, I get hate mail yet on that.

DAVIS: I think we have not been fair. There’s a lot of anti-Mormon apologetics that are out there and anti-Mormon polemics, where unfair charges are made against the Mormons. I think that’s absolutely right.

SEVERSON: The bias against Mormonism has been a problem for Mitt Romney’s campaign. But attitudes seem to be changing. A recent poll by the Pew Research Center found that eight of ten voters who know Mitt Romney is a Mormon say they are either comfortable with his faith or that it no longer matters.

/wnet/religionandethics/files/2012/09/thumb01-mormons-evangelicals.jpgMormons, according to religious studies scholar Stephen Davis, believe in “continuing revelation” and rely on more sacred books than just the Bible. But evangelical Christians, he says, would never accept the Book of Mormon as the word of God.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2012/09/14/september-14-2012-mormons-and-evangelicals/13007/feed/21Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,Evangelicals,Joseph Smith,Mitt Romney,Mormons,theologyMormons, according to religious studies scholar Stephen Davis, believe in “continuing revelation” and rely on more than just the Bible. But evangelical Christians, he says, would never accept the Book of Mormon as the word of God.Mormons, according to religious studies scholar Stephen Davis, believe in “continuing revelation” and rely on more than just the Bible. But evangelical Christians, he says, would never accept the Book of Mormon as the word of God.Religion & Ethics NewsWeeklyno7:49RNC 2012: Catholic Republicans on Religious Liberty and the Budgethttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2012/09/04/rnc-2012-catholic-republicans-on-religious-liberty-and-the-budget/12851/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2012/09/04/rnc-2012-catholic-republicans-on-religious-liberty-and-the-budget/12851/#commentsTue, 04 Sep 2012 19:36:33 +0000http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/?p=12851More →

]]>Watch more of Kim Lawton’s interviews with former US Ambassador to the Vatican and co-chair of Catholics for Romney Jim Nicholson, and Maureen Ferguson, senior policy advisor with the Catholic Association, who talk about what on the Romney-Ryan agenda resonates with Catholics; Catholic religious liberty concerns over the Obama administration’s health care mandate that requires employers provide contraceptive services free of charge; and debate about whether proposed budget cuts to federal programs will hurt the poor and violate Catholic social teaching.

Watch interviews with Jim Nicholson, former US Ambassador to the Vatican and co-chair of Catholics for Romney, and Maureen Ferguson, senior policy advisor to the Catholic Association./wnet/religionandethics/files/2012/09/thumb01-catholics.jpg

KIM LAWTON, correspondent. In accepting the Republican nomination for president Thursday, Governor Mitt Romney talked more personally about his religion than he has so far on the campaign trail. Describing his background, Romney specifically mentioned his membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

MITT ROMNEY (speaking at convention): We were Mormons and growing up in Michigan; that might have seemed unusual or out of place but I really don’t remember it that way. My friends cared more about what sports teams we followed than what church we went to.

LAWTON: In the 1980s, Romney was bishop for a Mormon congregation in suburban Boston. In the LDS tradition, a bishop is similar to a pastor. He oversaw other churches as well.

ROMNEY: We had remarkably vibrant and diverse congregations from all walks of life and many who were new to America. We prayed together, our kids played together and we always stood ready to help each other out in different ways. That’s how it is in America. We look to our communities, our faiths, our families for our joy, our support, in good times and bad.

LAWTON: Earlier in the evening, fellow church members talked at length about Romney’s devotion, his compassion, and his service. Grant Bennett succeeded Romney as pastor.

GRANT BENNETT (Church leader): Mitt didn’t discuss questions of theology. He found the definition of religion given by James in the New Testament to be a practical guide: “Pure religion is to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction.”

REP. PAUL RYAN: Our faiths come together in the same moral creed. We believe that in every life there is goodness; for every person, there is hope. Each one of us was made for a reason, bearing the image and likeness of the Lord of life.

LAWTON: Prior to this week, there had been few explicit references to Romney’s Mormonism from the campaign. And there has been intense debate about whether the topic should be addressed head on. According to the Pew Research Center, half of all Americans say it doesn’t bother them when politicians talk about how religious they are. Two-thirds of Americans say it is important to have a president with strong religious beliefs. And among Republicans, that number jumps to more than 80 percent.

Mark DeMoss is an evangelical and a close Romney advisor on faith issues. He says he’s been impressed by the depth of Romney’s religious beliefs.

MARK DEMOSS (Romney Advisor): This is a really rock-solid faith that I think guides this man when he wakes up until he goes to bed.

DeMOSS (in speech): I trust his character, his integrity, his moral compass. And finally I trust his values, for I’m fully convinced that they mirror my own values.

LAWTON: For the last six years, DeMoss has been trying to enlist other evangelicals to the Romney cause, including those who say they don’t want to vote for a Mormon because they don’t consider Mormons to be fellow Christians.

DeMOSS: The same people that will say that would have no problem letting a doctor of a different faith do open heart surgery on them, will fly on an airplane piloted by a pilot of a different faith and then suddenly say “But I can’t vote for a president of a different faith.”

LAWTON: Republicans need the enthusiastic support of evangelicals, who make up more than a quarter of the GOP coalition. Ralph Reed, president of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, says it’s wrong to think that evangelicals would be upset because there are no Protestants on the GOP ticket.

RALPH REED (Faith & Freedom Coalition): They are very sophisticated. They understand that there are many candidates who are Jews, who are Mormons, who are Catholics who may not share their theology, who share their values, and they’ll vote for them and work for them and I think they’re going to do that for Ryan and Romney.

LAWTON: The Faith and Freedom Coalition held a high-profile rally to kick off the convention. Numerous speakers used religious issues to rally support for Romney.

NEWT GINGRICH (in speech): Unlike Barack Obama, he actually understands that the basis of our liberty is the grant from God, and that no government can come between God and man.

LAWTON: Reed outlined an ambitious strategy to target 17 million evangelicals who he says didn’t vote in the last presidential election.

REED (in speech): We going to mail them, we’re going to text them, we’re going to email them, we’re going to phone them, and if they haven’t voted by November 6, we’re going to get in the car and we’re going to drive to their house and we’re going to get them to the polls.

REED: In 2008, the Obama campaign and the left really out-hustled us and did so very badly. But not any more.

LAWTON: Another key group will be Catholics. In the last election, a slight majority of Catholics voted for President Obama. In most recent elections, the presidential candidate who won the most Catholic votes won the election. Many Catholics here at the convention said there’s a lot of pride in the fact that former altar boy Paul Ryan is the vice-presidential candidate. They say the Romney-Ryan ticket offers much that resonates with their community.

MAUREEN FERGUSON (The Catholic Association): There are certain core, fundamental issues to our faith and that is the right to life, the right to religious liberty to practice our faith free from government interference, and the defense of marriage and not the redefinition of marriage and family. These are core issues that are fundamental to our faith that we must consider as Catholics to be primary in terms of deciding for whom we’re going to vote.

LAWTON: There were several convention events to celebrate the party’s traditional stands on issues like abortion and gay marriage. But even the most socially conservative delegates acknowledged that economic issues will, and should, dominate this election.

MARGARET STOLDORF (Iowa Delegate): The moral fabric of our lives is intertwined with the economy, and I do not believe that we the people, the government needs to or feel compelled to support every living being.

RICHARD HAYES (Texas Delegate): We spend too much money, and it’s hurting us, and it’s hurting us not only personally but globally.

LAWTON: The Tea Party, which has significant religious support, had an active presence here. Various Tea Party affiliates held a unity rally at local evangelical megachurch.

REP. MICHELE BACHMANN: These concepts–taxed enough already, don’t spend more than what you take in and follow the Constitution–are now a part of the Republican Party platform thanks to the Tea Party.

LAWTON: Over the past several months, many in the moderate and liberal faith communities have raised concerns that cuts to social programs in Ryan’s proposed budget would hurt the poor. And some Catholics in particular, took issue with Ryan using Catholic social teaching to defend his plan. But former Ambassador to the Vatican and Catholics for Ryan co-chair Jim Nicholson defended Ryan.

AMB. JIM NICHOLSON (Catholics for Romney): I think Ryan shows a great of deal of compassion really, a real Catholic value, because of the things he wants to change so that there will be sustainability in these programs and help the people who really need it, so that we can afford it out there when our children and grandchildren are out there and some of them who will need help probably.

LAWTON: Still, many in the faith community continued issuing challenges to the Republicans’ economic plans. The progressive Jewish group Bend the Arc was in Tampa calling for the wealthy to pay more taxes.

ELLIE AXE (Bend the Arc): We’re representing a Jewish community that cares a lot about social and economic justice. And what that means for us right now is that we believe that the top two percent earners should pay their fair share in taxes.

LAWTON: Rev. Samuel Rodriguez is president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.

REV. SAMUEL RODRIGUEZ (National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference): We can’t neglect the poor. Now I’m not referencing the idea of government dependency for the rest of your life. Neither am I an advocate of perpetual entitlement. But there is a responsibility the government must take, and that responsibility is to take care of those that can’t take care of themselves.

LAWTON: Rodriguez has not endorsed either candidate, but offered the benediction on Tuesday night.

RODRIGUEZ: “Believing that God is not done with America, and America is not done with God…”

LAWTON: Both political conventions traditionally open and close each session with prayer. This year, those prayers turned unusually controversial after Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the US Catholic bishops, agreed to pray at the RNC. He later said he would also be praying at the DNC. Rodriguez says religious leaders shouldn’t shy away from appearing at events like this.

RODRIGUEZ: Our job is to contextualize a prophetic witness, to speak from truth, biblical truth, higher truth, spiritual truth. That transcends politics. With that being said, I think it’s fine if we can speak with integrity to both political parties addressing both platforms as it pertains to the concerns and the values that we hold near and dear.

LAWTON: While most of the faith-based rallying this week was Christian, Republican Jews also pledged to make more inroads in their heavily Democratic community. They say President Obama is particularly vulnerable on his policies toward Israel.

MATT BROOKS (Republican Jewish Coalition): For a segment of the Jewish community, that is a real problem and one of the reasons why we’re seeing a real deterioration of support in the Jewish community for President Obama.

LAWTON: In a tight election, outreach to every group becomes vital. But amid all the mobilization strategies, some said the larger religion story coming out of this convention should not get lost.

RODRIGUEZ: Here we are, America demonstrating to the world that we could have a Mormon president, with a Catholic vice-president, with strong evangelical support. How about that? You know you never could have written that story 20, 30, 40 years ago. But it conveys a message that religious pluralism trumps religious totalitarianism. And this is what makes America great.

LAWTON: I’m Kim Lawton in Tampa.

/wnet/religionandethics/files/2012/08/thumb01-religion-rnc.jpgManaging editor Kim Lawton reports from Tampa on the involvement of faith leaders at the Republican National Convention; their concerns, especially about Mormonism; the issues they are stressing; and the extent to which they are rallying their members in support of the Romney-Ryan ticket.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2012/08/31/august-31-2012-religion-and-the-republican-convention/12813/feed/4Barack Obama,Campaign 2012,Catholic Vote,Church and State,Evangelicals,Mitt Romney,Mormons,Paul Ryan,Republican National Convention,Republicans,Tea Party - KIM LAWTON, correspondent. In accepting the Republican nomination for president Thursday, Governor Mitt Romney talked more personally about his religion than he has so far on the campaign trail. Describing his background,
KIM LAWTON, correspondent. In accepting the Republican nomination for president Thursday, Governor Mitt Romney talked more personally about his religion than he has so far on the campaign trail. Describing his background, Romney specifically mentioned his membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
MITT ROMNEY (speaking at convention): We were Mormons and growing up in Michigan; that might have seemed unusual or out of place but I really don’t remember it that way. My friends cared more about what sports teams we followed than what church we went to.
LAWTON: In the 1980s, Romney was bishop for a Mormon congregation in suburban Boston. In the LDS tradition, a bishop is similar to a pastor. He oversaw other churches as well.
ROMNEY: We had remarkably vibrant and diverse congregations from all walks of life and many who were new to America. We prayed together, our kids played together and we always stood ready to help each other out in different ways. That’s how it is in America. We look to our communities, our faiths, our families for our joy, our support, in good times and bad.
LAWTON: Earlier in the evening, fellow church members talked at length about Romney’s devotion, his compassion, and his service. Grant Bennett succeeded Romney as pastor.
GRANT BENNETT (Church leader): Mitt didn’t discuss questions of theology. He found the definition of religion given by James in the New Testament to be a practical guide: “Pure religion is to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction.”
LAWTON: On Wednesday night, vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan, a Roman Catholic, linked his own faith with Romney’s.
REP. PAUL RYAN: Our faiths come together in the same moral creed. We believe that in every life there is goodness; for every person, there is hope. Each one of us was made for a reason, bearing the image and likeness of the Lord of life.
LAWTON: Prior to this week, there had been few explicit references to Romney’s Mormonism from the campaign. And there has been intense debate about whether the topic should be addressed head on. According to the Pew Research Center, half of all Americans say it doesn’t bother them when politicians talk about how religious they are. Two-thirds of Americans say it is important to have a president with strong religious beliefs. And among Republicans, that number jumps to more than 80 percent.
Mark DeMoss is an evangelical and a close Romney advisor on faith issues. He says he’s been impressed by the depth of Romney’s religious beliefs.
MARK DEMOSS (Romney Advisor): This is a really rock-solid faith that I think guides this man when he wakes up until he goes to bed.
DeMOSS (in speech): I trust his character, his integrity, his moral compass. And finally I trust his values, for I’m fully convinced that they mirror my own values.
LAWTON: For the last six years, DeMoss has been trying to enlist other evangelicals to the Romney cause, including those who say they don’t want to vote for a Mormon because they don’t consider Mormons to be fellow Christians.
DeMOSS: The same people that will say that would have no problem letting a doctor of a different faith do open heart surgery on them, will fly on an airplane piloted by a pilot of a different faith and then suddenly say “But I can’t vote for a president of a different faith.”
LAWTON: Republicans need the enthusiastic support of evangelicals, who make up more than a quarter of the GOP coalition. Ralph Reed, president of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, says it’s wrong to think that evangelicals would be upset because there are no Protestants on the GOP ticket.
RALPH REED (Faith & Freedom Coalition): They are very sophisticated. They understand that there are many candidates who are Jews, who are Mormons, who are Catholics who may not share their theology, who share their values, and they’ll vote for them and work for them and I think they’re going to do that for Ryan and Romney.
Religion & Ethics NewsWeeklyno10:36 Faith, Politics, and the National Cathedralhttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2012/08/24/august-24-2012-faith-politics-and-the-national-cathedral/12592/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2012/08/24/august-24-2012-faith-politics-and-the-national-cathedral/12592/#commentsFri, 24 Aug 2012 20:49:58 +0000http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/?p=12592More →

DEBORAH POTTER, guest host: One year after an earthquake caused substantial damage to the Washington National Cathedral, masons have made the first major repair to the central tower. A newly carved stone was put in place as the Cathedral announced a new gift of $5 million from the Lilly Endowment to help pay for restorations. The Cathedral has already spent most of the $2.8 million raised after the quake on stabilizing the structure. Total damage was estimated at $20 million. Joining us now is the interim dean at the Washington National Cathedral, Frank Wade. Thanks for coming.

POTTER: Twenty million dollars to repair a building is a lot of money. Is it worth it? Is there a real value to having cathedrals in the 21st century?

WADE: Cathedrals are part of where our culture restores its spiritual values and its sense of mystery. That’s really important. We need places like that, and the Washington National Cathedral plays that role in a peculiar way, in a particular way on the national scene—a great church for national purposes. So I think it’s very, very important. We would lose a great deal if we had no place to turn at key moments in our life when we want to remember God, remember mystery in the larger context of life.

POTTER: The Cathedral has always been a place where dialogue happens, and most recently, you’ve opened up the pages of your magazine to a dialogue, or at least a Q and A with the two presidential candidates about their faith. Why was that important?

WADE: It’s important because there’s no—while we separate church and state, there is no separation of faith and state. Faith is how you figure out life. It’s how you set priorities. The faith of our leaders is a very, very important part of the conversation. It’s how they will approach their job. So it’s a legitimate part of what goes on.

POTTER: And yet some people say it has no place in the election campaign, and we shouldn’t really talk about it, and the candidates don’t talk about it very much.

WADE: No, they don’t. But it’s emotionally laden. Faith is—it carries a lot of emotion with it. We’ve done wonderful things in the name of faith. We’ve done terrible things in the name of faith. It’s a very uncontrolled emotion in a culture, in a society. So people are nervous about it, but that doesn’t make it less important. Indeed, it makes it more important that we talk about it, ground it in understanding.

POTTER: You’ve said that both of these candidates come with assets from their faith backgrounds and liabilities. Can you talk more about what you mean?

WADE: Well, every faith background, every denomination, every Christian journey, every faith journey has limits, things that it does or does not do. You know, Governor Romney and President Obama both have grown up and formed their faith in different ways, certainly, but formed their faith in marginalized churches in our society, and so that constitutes a limit on the worldview that you get in that place. Now these are very broad strokes and very, you know, very generalized things. Both of these people from those churches have felt a call to serve this nation and the other and the world in wonderful, wonderful ways. But their faith communities have within them an intense inner loyalty that comes to a marginalized church, and that’s somewhat of a limitation. It obviously has not limited these two people.

POTTER: Why do you think so many Americans have sort of confused or uncertain feelings about the faith of these two candidates? You have some evangelicals saying Mormonism, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is not actually Christian. And you have a large percentage now, it’s actually a growing percentage, of people who say that well President Obama is a Muslim.

WADE: I think that—I don’t know why people do that. It’s difficult to talk and think about the faith of other people and because the African American tradition of President Obama and the Mormon tradition of Governor Romney are not part of the general experience of our population, we have trouble understanding it. You know, faith tends to speak in absolute terms. It makes it hard to think about how other people experience it. It’s difficult for a whole country to get their head around that as we are proving right now, which makes our conversation even more important.

POTTER: Thank you so much. Frank Wade, interim dean of Washington National Cathedral.

/wnet/religionandethics/files/2012/08/thumb01-frank-wade.jpgWe talk with Rev. Frank Wade, interim dean of the Washington National Cathedral, about the value of cathedrals in a twenty-first century world and the role a cathedral can play in helping the nation understand the relationship between faith and politics.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2012/08/24/august-24-2012-faith-politics-and-the-national-cathedral/12592/feed/4Barack Obama,Campaign 2012,Christianity,earthquake,Frank Wade,Mitt Romney,Mormons,Presidential Candidates,Separation of Church and State,Washington National CathedralWe talk with Rev. Frank Wade, interim dean of the Washington National Cathedral, about the value of cathedrals in a twenty-first century world and the role a cathedral can play in helping the nation understand the relationship between faith and politics.We talk with Rev. Frank Wade, interim dean of the Washington National Cathedral, about the value of cathedrals in a twenty-first century world and the role a cathedral can play in helping the nation understand the relationship between faith and politics.Religion & Ethics NewsWeeklyno4:16